Function Schmunction is a project all about celebrating and creating opportunities for authentic autistic play, joy and connection. The project seeks to include autistic individuals and their communities of all ages, life experiences, interests and needs.
The project is devised and led by myself as part of my role in The Sensory Collective with Independent Arts Projects.
The project includes the Function Schmunction playground which had its first outing in Edinburgh during July 2023. The space includes myriad opportunities to dive into the senses and imagination with an endlessly deflating ball pit, hideaways for nesting, sonic plumbing devices to explore sounds and voice and a space to commune with pebbles and sticks. The space was created by Max and informed by over fifty individual play sessions with autistic participants that took place in parks, woodlands, living rooms, day centres and school classrooms.
Function Schmunction is also an exploration of what autistic play culture is and can be. Autistic play is something that has been and continues to be misunderstood, invisibilized and at worst pathologised and prevented. Function Schmunction provides an affirming and creative alternative lens always from an autistic perspective.
Photos by Geraldine Heaney
Play Radical 